


End Point

by last_system_lord



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Death Fic, Gen, Post-Continuum, Post-Series, Tok'ra
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-17
Updated: 2015-05-17
Packaged: 2018-03-30 23:06:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3955333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/last_system_lord/pseuds/last_system_lord
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The SGC receives a distress call from the Tok'ra.</p>
            </blockquote>





	End Point

**Author's Note:**

> The name of Ba'al's host was taken from the Big Finish Audiobook An Eye for An Eye.

_‘Starg-te Comm-nd, if you… this message…. -der attack. Do n-t… I repeat… or…. ship. This is… w-ning. It… we tho-t, but….. h-s….’_

Landry stopped the recording. ‘That’s as much as we’ve been able to clean it up.’

‘Really?’ Daniel was frowning. ‘Because that’s not very good.’

Vala nodded her agreement. ‘Really bad, actually.’

‘There must have been a lot of interference.’ Sam had a more pressing worry. ‘And that came from the Tok’ra, when?’

‘Just over an hour ago,’ Landry told them. ‘I had hoped with over a decade of alien technology we could get more out of it, but I’ve been assured this is as good as it is going to get.’

Cam leaned forward. ‘And you want us to go check it out? Wouldn’t the Odyssey be a better plan, that sounds pretty serious.’

‘Yes it does.’ Landry looked around at them. ‘And if it’s an attack from ships, I don’t want to send the Odyssey in blind. Your job is to find out what’s happening and report back, only engage in hostiles if absolutely necessary. Teal’c, I thought you might want to be part of this one, since you’re here.’

Teal’c inclined his head. ‘You were correct, General Landry.’

Sam smiled at him. Even under such serious circumstances, it would be nice to have Teal’c join them again. He spent most of his time helping to lead the free jaffa nation and as much as Sam was happy for him, she often found herself missing her friend’s presence.

Landry continued, ‘If they’re still under heavy attack, gather only what information you can without putting yourselves in danger and report back ASAP. Do not engage unless absolutely necessary, understood?’

Cam nodded. ‘Understood, sir.’

Landry stood up. ‘Gear up, people. You gate out in 15 minutes.’

______________________

Sam stepped through the wormhole and staggered over something at her feet.

‘Holy-‘ Cam sucked in a sharp breath at about the same time that she realised that the ‘something’ was actually the body of a Tok’ra. Shot in the back with a staff weapon just feet from the gate.

He was beyond her help, so Sam stepped carefully around him and then saw what Cam had seen.

Last time she had been to the new Tok’ra homeworld, the buildings had stretched into the sky, a symbol of the galaxy freed from the Goa’uld. Above ground for the first time in thousands of years. Now a fine layer of dust hung in the air. Some of the same buildings still reached for the sky, the parts of them that were still upright anyway. The rest… rubble blanketed the ground, shards of glass and crystal and blood was all she could see.

She tried not to see the bodies.

Sam stood there, next to her team; wordless.

Teal’c moved first, heading towards to the ruined city and the four of them picked carefully after him.

The extraction chamber was one of the few things completely intact and immediately Sam could see why. Whoever had destroyed the city had hung around.

There were five dead Tok’ra in the room, laid out side-by-side, each separated from their host. The symbiotes had clearly been left to die on the floor, the hosts… Blood covered each body from where it had oozed out of multiple stab wounds, less noticeable were the marks around each wrist. Sam realised the Tok’ra must have been captured and then systematically executed. Sam swallowed down bile; whoever had done this had known exactly what they were doing.

After the extractions, the Tok’ra device had clearly been methodically broken down into the smallest pieces possible.

‘Who…?’ asked Cam, disbelief in his voice.

‘I know of no-one who would do this,’ Teal’c replied in a sombre tone.

‘They were rebuilding their whole society,’ said Daniel, indicating the city despondently, but anger was apparent in his tone. ‘They’d _won_.’

Vala looked around them nervously. ‘Maybe we should go? Honestly, it didn’t take that long for us to get here…’

‘You think whoever did this is still around?’ Cam said, making it more of a statement than a question as he nudged some rubble with a boot.

Tearing her eyes from the destruction, Sam had to agree it was a possibility. ‘We should head back to the gate anyway, we need to check for survivors and we can’t do that properly with just the five of us.’

‘The longer we delay the less chance of successfully recovering survivors,’ commented Teal’c.

‘Yeah…’ Cam grimaced. ‘Okay. Carter and myself will head back to the gate and call this in, I’m gonna request the Odyssey. You guys scout around; see what you can find out, but stay out of sight as much as possible and don’t engage any hostiles, got it?’

If anything, Sam found the trek back to the gate worse than the journey there. Going in, the shock of the situation had prevented her from taking in the finer details, but as they passed back through she found herself noticing more and more. It would have taken a coordinated ground attack, Sam guessed; multiple simultaneous explosions combined with… with what? A sizable attacking force? She didn’t think so; there were only Tok’ra bodies.

Cam was clearly thinking along the same lines, because he said; ‘Looks like they took away their dead. Whoever _they_ were.’

‘They must have been quick about it.’ Sam shook her head. ‘I don’t know, Cam, we were here within hours of the warning, it doesn’t make sense.’

‘The main attack must have been over before they managed to contact us,’ Cam agreed as they approached the DHD. He added bitterly; ‘I hope we can track down the bastards.’

Sam shared that sentiment. She slammed her hand into the first symbol on the DHD, but nothing happened. More gently, with a gnawing worry beginning to grow, she pressed it again to no effect.

‘Cam…’

He turned around and Sam started randomly pressing symbols to demonstrate the problem.

‘Oh, that is not good. Can you fix it.’

Ahead of him on that one, Sam was already reaching for the crystals. Her worst fears were quickly realised; ‘The control crystals missing. I’m sorry, but we can’t dial out using this. If we can find good enough power source…’

‘We can dial manually.’ Cam tapped his radio. ‘Jackson, Vala, Teal’c, we have a problem with the DHD. First priority just became finding a power source.’

 _‘What kind of problem, Colonel Mitchell?’_ asked Teal’c.

Sam sat back on her heals. ‘No control crystal, so if you can see it anywhere, that would be the best option.’

There was a pause, and then Daniel asked; ‘ _Why would the Tok’ra remove their own DHD control crystal?’_

‘Can’t think of a reason,’ admitted Cam. ‘Which is why I said; look for a power source.’

_‘I hate to state the obvious, but if someone removed the control crystal doesn’t that imply that someone wants to k-‘_

Vala cut off abruptly and Sam exchanged an alarmed glance with Cam.

‘Vala?’ she asked, at the Sam time Cam said; ‘Jackson, are you still there?’

Their only reply was static and Cam swore.

‘It’s got to be interference,’ said Sam, her mind racing through the possibilities. ‘Remember the Tok’ra signal?’

‘Interference that only cuts in _now_?’

‘I didn’t say it was accidental interference.’ Sam turned in a slow circle to make sure there was no one approaching them. ‘We’re too exposed here; I think we need to find some cover.’

‘And make our way back to the others,’ added Cam, also scanning the area as he backed away from the DHD.

They set off at a steady jog towards the nearest ruined building that didn’t look like it was about to collapse further  
  
Before they reached it, a hologram shimmered into view in front of her and Sam jerked to a stop, instant recognition momentarily stunning her. But it couldn’t be...

‘Is that _Ba’al_?’ asked Cam, somehow managing to sound both horrified and resigned.

‘I don’t think-‘

‘I am _not_ Ba’al,’ snarled the man, dark brown eyes glinting dangerously. ‘You Tau’ri made sure of that. You and the Tok’ra, imagining your pathetic view of the galaxy is shared by all. I am _Aziru_ and I will make sure your people suffer as your planet is reduced to rubble and ruin.’ He spread an arm in a gesture that encompassed the entire area and sneered. ‘As I have done to the Tok’ra.’

Sam stared. Aziru. Ba’al’s host, obviously.

‘Hey,’ said Cam. ‘Shouldn’t you be grateful? We did free you-‘

‘ _Free_? I was a _God_. You took my strength, you took my power, you took half of me away and grounded me among my enemies and expect me to be _grateful_.’ Aziru glared at them. ‘You imagine that all hosts are unwilling, but I was Ba’al’s lo’taur for _years_ ; faithful enough to be chosen as a host and given centuries of life.’

Cam leaned close to her and whispered; ‘Shouldn’t he be pissed that Ba’al wasn’t actually a God?’

Sam stayed silent, remembering Daniel’s report from when he’d posed as Yu’s lo’taur. He’d felt the need to try and warn another System Lord’s slave that they might be in danger and had gone so far as to add that the Goa’uld were not Gods. Except the lo’taur had already known that. Ba’al’s lo’taur.

‘Ba’al’s reign is over,’ said Sam, trying her best to sound reasonable. ‘Say you succeed in destroying us, then what? People aren’t going to accept more false gods, if you surrender now I’m sure we can agree to something.’

‘Ba’al’s reign _is_ over,’ agreed Aziru, but his expression wasn’t any more pleasant. ‘And as you say it follows that so is mine. But surrender? I think not. Why would I, when I can have revenge?’

‘Great,’ said Cam. ‘So why are you telling us this?’

‘So that you could be certain you and your team were not alone here. So that you know what is coming and can do nothing about it.’ Aziru smiled. ‘Run, Tau’ri; you have the whole planet to use to hide. Run, so that I can hunt you down.’

‘You know,’ Cam replied, ‘I’m not all that big a fan of running, we might just stay right here.’

‘That would be dull, but I’m sure I will enjoy killing you regardless.’ Aziru regarded them with cold eyes. ‘Perhaps the other half of your team will be more interesting.’

The hologram vanished.

Cam regarded the space where Aziru’s image had been. ‘Well he’s a psychopath.’

Sam kept her back to a crumbling wall as she scanned the area. ‘Yeah, I got that. I think we need to find our way back to Daniel, Teal’c and Vala.’

Cam shrugged. ‘We could just stay here and wait for him. I was kinda expecting things to be worse. One guy, even one really pissed off guy, it’s not too bad. We can take out one guy.’

She’d already thought that through, so Sam was shaking her head before he’d finished speaking. ‘Look around you, this…. Surely one person couldn’t have done this. And why bring us here, if it was one against five?’

‘Bring us here? It was the Tok’ra who contacted us, not him. We would’ve noticed if it was him; it’s not like his accent isn’t a giveaway.’

‘Think about it; he’s disabled the DHD to stop us escaping, why not do that to the Tok’ra?’ Sam saw he was about to speak and ploughed on. ‘Even if he couldn’t do that without alerting them, why hang around, there’s nothing _left_. And there must have been a sensor at the gate to alert him when we dialled out again, otherwise he couldn’t have found us to broadcast the hologram. He was waiting for us.’

‘Point taken.’ Cam eased away from the wall and step out from their cover, eyeing the area warily. ‘Guess we’re running then.’

‘Just a second, if I’m right…’ Sam keyed her radio. ‘Daniel, Teal’c are you there?’

 _‘Sam?’_ Daniel’s voice came through loud and clear and Sam released a breath she hadn’t realised she was holding. _‘What’s going on? We haven’t been able to-‘_

‘It’s Aziru, Daniel,’ Sam broke in, because she had to get the key points across as quickly and efficiently as possible. ‘I don’t think we have much time to talk, he’s been jamming the radio. I don’t know how yet, but he did this to the Tok’ra and he’s still here.’ She paused for a second to hear his response and got nothing again. ‘Damn it.’

‘Jamming the radio’s again?’ They broke cover and jogged over to the next pile of rubble. ‘Why is it intermittent?’

‘It’s not; he stopped jamming it to get his hologram through.’ Sam realised she was crouching next to a body and grimaced. ‘I hope Daniel got enough of my message.’

She examined the Tok’ra next to her, glad that she hadn’t known the woman. The body was covered in the fine level of dust that was covering everything, but Sam could only find relatively minor cuts and bruises. A theory started forming at the back of her mind as she went over to another body, a man this time. This Tok’ra she did know, not personally, but she’d seen him around when they’d viewed Ba’al’s execution.

His hair line was matted with blood, but Sam didn’t think the head wound was severe enough to have killed him. The angle of his arm suggested it was broken, but there didn’t seem to any other major injuries.

‘Pretty sure they’re all dead.’ Cam knelt beside her.

‘Exactly.’ Sam stood up and they moved on again, keeping low in case Aziru was nearby. ‘And they didn’t all die from physical injuries.’

‘If this is when you start telling me about an invisible nerve gas…’ Cam flashed his P90 into a shadowed area and found nothing.

‘Sort of.’ Sam caught his expression. ‘We should be fine. But a chemical attack would help explain why we haven’t found _any_ survivors. I think he used symbiote poison.’

‘Symbiote poison doesn’t take down buildings,’ Cam noted wryly.

‘Obviously he planted bombs as well, I’m guessing in a co-ordinated attack.’

‘Okay, symbiote poison does seem to make sense,’ admitted Cam as they ducked inside the shell of a low lying building. ‘But it’s not like the Tok’ra would have handed Aziru their symbiote poison, even if they did trust him.’

‘They didn’t need to give him any, Ba’al had the formula from the Trust, so all Aziru would have needed was a lab.’

Cam rolled his eyes. ‘Right, they gave him a lab and weren’t suspicious when he wouldn’t let anyone near it.’

‘I’m not saying it would have been easy.’ Sam scrubbed a hand over her face. ‘In fact, even with all the knowledge from Ba’al, I can’t work out how he could possibly have set all this up. One guy distributing explosives around every major building without being noticed?’

‘Not likely, huh? You think he must be working with someone.’

Sam scanned the immediate area again. Nothing. Nothing moved, nothing stirred, the entire planet was eerily quiet, so much so that Sam winced every time she took a step. The ground crunched under her boots and Sam felt like the noise was like a neon sign, telling Aziru where they were.

‘I don’t know,’ Sam answered Cam. ‘I wouldn’t have thought any of the Tok’ra would work with him.’

‘No. No, that’s out.’ Cam pulled a face. ‘Although I was thinking that _he_ wouldn’t work with _them_.’

‘Probably not. If he really was a willing host to Ba’al, then the extraction must have been pretty traumatic.’

Sam remembered Jolinar all too well, and she’d only be host to her for a very short time. Aziru had been host to Ba’al for centuries.

‘Carter, if that’s sympathy I hear…’

‘Not after what he’s done here.’ Sam picked her way through the rubble bitterly. The Tok’ra hadn’t always been the most co-operative of allies, but they certainly hadn’t deserved _this_. ‘I was just thinking that he’d be pretty unbalanced from it.’

Cam stared at her. ‘Anyone who thinks being host to _Ba’al_ is a good thing was unbalanced enough to start with.’

Sam started to agree with him and then stopped. She’d heard something. A soft sound, easily attributed to wind, but there wasn’t any. She exchanged a look with Cam and they moved carefully, quietly, behind the nearest cover.

_____________________________

‘But why would Aziru do this to the Tok’ra?’ complained Vala loudly.

Daniel winced and made a shushing motion at her as Teal’c turned to look at them both accusingly. Daniel replied softly; ‘My guess would be he wasn’t as pleased with the extraction as they were hoping.’

‘Oooh, that would be bad,’ said Vala, in what Daniel considered to be the understatement of the year.

‘Yeah, well, _this_ ,’ Daniel indicated the state of the Tok’ra city. ‘Is not what I’d call _good_.’

‘It would explain the extraction chamber,’ noted Teal’c and Daniel had to agree with him.

‘Drag the survivors there, do to them what they did to him.’ Daniel pulled a face. ‘What I don’t understand is how he did it by himself, I’d love to ask Sam about it. Any luck with the radio Teal’c?’

‘None. Communications seem to be poor on this planet, which would account for the broken signal we received from the Tok’ra.’

Except there’d never been any problems with communications on the new Tok’ra homeworld before. Daniel huffed out a frustrated breath; they should never have split up. As soon as they’d seen the devastation they should have tried to dial back out again, then at least they’d be facing the threat as a group.

‘Hey,’ called Vala and Daniel realised she’d wandered off again. Typical. ‘I thought the Tok’ra had stopped building tunnels?’

That _really_ got his attention. ‘They had.’

‘Then what’s this?’ Vala was standing near what had once been a tower, pointing down a hole… that was lined with what looked suspiciously like Tok’ra crystals.

‘It is a Tok’ra tunnel,’ said Teal’c.

It didn’t take much debate before they decided to check it out. Daniel hoped the Tok’ra had built it; the tunnels formed pretty quickly and maybe, just maybe, some of the Tok’ra had escaped down there and survived the attack.

Teal’c went in first and Daniel and Vala followed him. The glinting light of the crystals was familiar, but Daniel found it depressing. If the Tok’ra had kept living in tunnels, maybe they’d still be alive.

‘Daniel Jackson.’ Teal’c was pointing to something attached to the top of the tunnel.

Daniel squinted at it. ‘Whoa.’

He jerked away rapidly, backing into Vala who’d come up right behind him for a closer look.

‘I believe we have discovered how the explosives were placed without the Tok’ra’s knowledge.’ Teal’c was giving the unexploded bomb a wide berth.

‘Yeah.’ Daniel huffed out a breath. So much for the tunnels being made by Tok’ra survivors. As they walked further and further in without seeing anyone Daniel knew it was less and less likely the tunnels had been created in a hurry. No, the intricacy of them, and the bomb meant that these had been made by Aziru.

‘Sam was wrong,’ Vala said from just around the next corner, cutting into Daniel’s thoughts. ‘It wasn’t Aziru.’

Cursing that he’d let her get out of sight again, Daniel jogged around and saw the next section of the tunnel had not fared well, it was partially caved in and Vala was kneeling next to a body. Aziru’s body.

‘Oh.’ Daniel frowned; Sam had seemed pretty sure, but it wasn’t like she’s had time to explain her reasoning.

‘Why is he in these tunnels?’ Teal’c asked.

Teal’c was right, Daniel realised. While at the surface they’d been tripping over bodies, here… Aziru was the first they’d seen. Daniel tried to be sad for him, he really did, but it was difficult not to see him as Ba’al and, up until a few moments before, he’d thought Aziru responsible for the destruction of the Tok’ra. Still, the question remained…

‘He could have been running from the attack,’ Vala suggested.

‘Or he could still be responsible for the attack and just have been unlucky with falling debris.’ Daniel peered down the tunnel. ‘Which would mean the DHD control crystal is probably down here somewhere.’

Teal’c acknowledge Daniel’s comment by continuing down the tunnel, Vala close on his heels. Daniel sent one last glance at Aziru before following them. The Tok’ra had been taken down using their own technology, the tunnels meant that their attacker – or attackers – could have executed the plan in complete secrecy. Had that attacker been Aziru? Daniel wondered if they’d ever know for sure.

‘So if it was him, we’re safe now, right?’

‘And if it wasn’t we’re still in danger.’ Daniel gave Vala an irritated look. ‘Which means we still have no idea what’s going on.’

Vala stuck her tongue out at him, but continued far more quietly.

Daniel had always found the Tok’ra tunnels fascinating. That a society would evolve to live entirely underground with no natural light source… but he knew they’d been driven there by the Goa’uld. It was because of that that he was certain the Tok’ra hadn’t built the tunnels under the new city, the tall buildings hadn’t been a contrast to their old way of life by accident.

Ahead of him, Teal’c rounded a corner and stopped dead. Daniel hurried up to him.

‘Ohhh dear,’ said Vala succinctly.

‘Samantha Carter was, in fact, correct,’ Teal’c added.

Daniel eyed the cloning lab worriedly. There were more than a dozen tanks – for want of a better word – lined up around the edge of the large cavernous space, and they were all empty. ‘Do you think Sam knew about this?’

Vala tapped the glass on the nearest tank. ‘I don’t know, Daniel, that seems like the kind of thing you would lead with. Like; ‘It’s Aziru and he’s cloned himself’ not ‘It’s Aziru, I don’t have much time-’’ Vala imitated the static on the radio.

‘We must warn her and Colonel Mitchell,’ Teal’c said. ‘These tunnels can only be where Aziru had based himself, if he is jamming our radio signal, it is mostly likely from within these tunnels.’

_________________________

Sam peered out from behind her cover, but couldn’t see anyone, she turned to Mitchell and he shook his head. She leaned a little further out, to get a better look around, and the staff blast narrowly missed her head. Ducking back out of sight as rapidly as possible, Sam fired a round in the general direction of the staff fire.

‘Well now we know it’s not Jackson,’ muttered Cam, briefly breaking cover to fire off his own round. The answering staff blast smashed into where his head had been just seconds before.

‘If he’s only got a staff weapon we should be able to take him out.’ Sam knew from long experience that they weren’t the most accurate weapons in the galaxy.

She let off another volley while Cam tried to pinpoint his location. This time, there was no answering fire.

‘Damn it. Have you seen him yet?’

Sam looked again, cautiously, not providing Aziru with enough of a target to actually hit her. ‘I’m thinking roughly at the two o’clock position.’

‘Yeah, but _roughly_ isn’t going to help us get him.’

‘I know.’ Another staff blast rocked their cover and Sam winced. ‘I’m not too confident about the structural integrity of this place either.’

Dust showered down on them as if to prove her point.

‘Keep firing, let me know if you see him.’ Sam retreated back into the small room they were hiding in. It had once been part of a larger building complex, but the main complex had completely collapsed. The structural failure meant there was another way out and she debated the option of trying to double around and ambush him. It was two against one, after all, and they needed to make use of it. It occurred to her that the staff blasts had stopped. ‘Cam?’

‘I don’t know, he might be moving.’ Cam fired again, more or less randomly, to prevent Aziru from closing in on them.

‘Yeah,’ Sam replied and moved towards her other exit. Doubling around sounded like their best option, then Aziru couldn’t escape and they could make their way back to their teammates without looking over their shoulders for him.

She moved out of the room.

An arm snaked around her neck, pulling Sam backwards and off balance and she struggled to breath. The sliver of steel told her that Aziru had a knife and Sam kicked out behind her, stamping down hard where she estimated his foot would be. Her boot found his shin and as a result the stamp twisted her leg, sending her sprawling to one side as he cursed in a language she didn’t know.

The fall was uncoordinated and probably saved her life as she slipped out of Aziru’s hold.

‘Hey!’ Cam appeared and raised his P90, probably alerted by the scuffle.

Aziru dived for Sam, a knife in one hand as he pulled a zat from where it was strapped to his thigh. The zat blast missed Cam by a mile and he opened fire on Aziru.

Sam flattened herself to the ground and covered her head with her arms, knowing her best chance was to let Cam take down Aziru and to stay out of his line of fire. A thud next to her made Sam jump and she saw Aziru hit the ground beside her, the zat falling from his hand as blood trickled out of his mouth.

He flailed out with the knife and Sam scrambled away and up to stand next to Cam, pointing her own weapon at Aziru.

He coughed, a wet and grating sound and Sam allowed herself to relax a bit.

‘That whole hunting us down thing hasn’t worked out so great for you, now, has it,’ said Cam, still slightly breathless from the fight.

‘Actually,’ Aziru rasped, offering a wolf’s smile that showed his own blood on his teeth, ‘it’s coming along quite… well.’

‘Yeah,’ Cam agreed, ‘for us.’

A chill worked its way up Sam’s spine. Was Aziru crazy enough that he honestly didn’t realise he was dying? Somehow she didn’t think so.

Aziru shuddered, but managed a weak laugh. ‘You have not won Tau’ri. It’s fitting that it is your team that die among the Tok’ra.’

‘Why haven’t we won?’ asked Sam. Goa’uld did love to gloat, and it was looking like Aziru had picked up more than a few things from Ba’al. Or maybe he’d always been like that.

‘In case you hadn’t noticed, you don’t look to hot,’ commented Cam, but Sam could hear the tension in his voice.

Aziru responded by reaching out for his zat and Sam raised her gun. A single bullet through the forehead and Aziru slumped back down for good.

‘That was weird.’ Cam sent a disgusted look at Aziru and then turned to Sam. ‘You okay?’

Sam tested her weight on her leg; sore, but nothing that would stop her walking. Or running. ‘I’m fine.’

Cam wandered back into the dilapidated room they’d been sheltering in, which was when Sam realised Aziru had been armed with a zat, not a staff weapon.

‘Cam!’ she yelled, turning away from Aziru’s body, but she was too late.

The staff blast caught him in the back as he turned to face her. He hit the ground in a boneless heap that suggested he was already beyond her help and Sam choked back nausea as she fired past him. A grunt of pain rewarded her efforts and Sam felt a bitter satisfaction. Whoever Aziru’s accomplice was, he wouldn’t be going after the rest of her team. She fired again, in a wide pattern, approaching steadily, but cautiously.

She stopped just inside the doorway and then swung out, leading with her P90. Recognition hit her like a physical blow, and Sam realised she was lucky that he _was_ dead, because otherwise her surprise could have been fatal.

Aziru lay on the ground at her feet, bullet wounds peppered his body and he was lying in an ever expanding pool of blood. He’d probably been dead as he hit the ground.

 _Cloning_ , Sam’s mind supplied as she turned and rushed back inside. A quick glance assured her that it _was_ also Aziru she’d killed inside the room, but he wasn’t the reason for her urgency.

She dropped to her knees beside Cam, feeling desperately for a pulse, but his eyes were staring blankly out at the room and she knew she was too late. Sam rocked back, swallowing hard and forced herself past the grief. There was time for that later; she had to get to Daniel, Teal’c and Vala before Aziru did.

A zat blast went singing past her and Sam leapt to her feet. Aziru was entering the room again, zat raised, and Sam thought he’d somehow managed to miss her until the second shot hit Cam’s body… and the third.

He vanished as if he’d never been there.

‘Always best to keep your SGC guessing,’ said Aziru, and smirked.

Sam wanted nothing more than to dive across the room and kill him with her bare hands, but she still had the rest of the team to think about, so she fired at him as he spun out of the way and out of her firing line.

Maybe she’d clipped him, but Sam knew it hadn’t been a killing shot. Her instinct was to chase him down, to hunt _him_ , but he could all too easily be luring her into another trap.

Cursing, Sam ran in the opposite direction, out of the room and back towards the Tok’ra extraction room, where she’d last seen the rest of SG-1.

_________________________

‘Don’t move,’ said Daniel, pointing his P90 at Aziru’s head. ‘Hands where I can see them.’

‘Daniel Jackson; along with your pet Jaffa and Vala Mal Doran.’ Aziru did not lift his hands from the console. ‘I see you found my tunnels. Those crystals are _fascinating_ don’t you think?’

‘Oh yes and even more fascinating when they’re not being used to take down a civilisation.’ Daniel gestured with his gun. ‘I said; hands where I can see them.’

Aziru sneered. ‘The Tok’ra were more of a disease than a civilisation.’

Teal’c gave Daniel a significant look and he winced slightly. Shooting someone in a battlefield was one thing, but this he would never get used to. But he had warned Aziru, twice. He fired, a single shot; meant to take Aziru in the shoulder.

Instead there was a sharp _bang_ and the air in front of him lit up in an orange glow which propagated around the room. Instinctively, Daniel leapt back to avoid the ricochet that had long since hit the ground.

‘Ah.’ Aziru smirked. ‘Did I not mention the shield?’

‘No, you left that part out.’ Vala shifted from foot to foot.

‘Stalemate,’ Daniel observed and then amended; ‘Until some of your clones get here, anyway. So, don’t tell me, you’re the original Aziru.’

‘The original? No, how could I be?’ There was a black look in Aziru’s eyes. ‘The original never set foot on this miserable dustbowl of a planet.’

‘Oh, so the original Ba’al is still alive?’ If this was a stalemate, at least temporarily, then Daniel intended to make the most of it.

‘Perhaps.’ Aziru made some adjustments on the console in front of him. ‘Perhaps not. If he is, he will appreciate the destruction of the Tok’ra and Tau’ri.’

Teal’c moved away from the conversation, guarding them from any surprise attack, Daniel appreciated the move. Now if only he could achieve something in the time he had to talk with Aziru. Daniel wondered how unbalanced he was, and how much of his personality was simply because of Ba’al, if he could get Aziru to regret his actions in the Tok’ra… Daniel thought he might be able to trick Aziru into dropping the attack on SG-1 and Earth. If only long enough for back up to arrive, Daniel was all too aware of his other two teammates. Cam and Sam. He hoped they were okay.

‘SG-1 are not all of the Tau’ri,’ Daniel reminded him. ‘You’ve been to Earth, you know that most of our planet has done nothing to you or, or to Ba’al. You can stop here Aziru, on this planet.’

‘Hmm. Interesting. How many years was it that you made decisions for all those ignorant people on your home planet? You seemed to care little for their safety then. You Tau’ri should never have dug up your Chappa-ai, you have become as much a plague as the Tok’ra and I will wipe you out.’

‘Oh but you don’t really want to do that,’ Vala chipped in. ‘I mean, _Ba’al_ might have since it would have been in his galactic domination interests but you-‘

‘Ba’al’s interests are my interests,’ Aziru snapped.

Daniel stepped closer to the edge of the forcefield, trying his best to sound reasonable. ‘You’re not Ba’al.’

‘No.’ Aziru’s face twisted into a snarl. ‘Not anymore. Yet, I have learnt from Ba’al. He was so intelligent, his mind more powerful than you can imagine and I had thousands of years with him. I have learnt plenty. Tactics. Technology.’

‘Insanity,’ muttered Vala.

Aziru picked something up off a shelf beside him. ‘He was willing to work with you Tau’ri, once he saw the alliance you had formed with the Jaffa and the Tok’ra. But he understood that you were not smart enough to take the advantage.’

‘What advantage?’ asked Daniel, looking over to Teal’c to make sure they were still clear.

Aziru hitched a shoulder. ‘As I say, I learnt from Ba’al. You could have to, if your people possessed a little imagination, of course.’

‘Oh, well, we could still work with _you_.’ Daniel held the lie out like the proverbial carrot.

‘No. That opportunity is _gone._ You cannot rip half of me away and then pretend you will work with me. My life is over, I am merely working to take you with me.’ He snorted. ‘Not that you make that offer seriously; you were far too attached to the Tok’ra for that.’

‘You won’t take down Earth,’ argued Daniel. ‘You’ve got to realise that, we beat you and Ba’al too many times, what makes you think you can do it on your own?’

‘Ba’al could have taken out Earth if it suited him.’ Aziru was definitely messing with a device, but Daniel couldn’t figure out what it was. ‘Now it suits me and your planet will be reduced to ashes.’

‘Can’t we just _talk_ about this?’ asked Vala, hopefully.

Aziru glanced up from the console and shrugged. ‘You are welcome to talk. It seems customary to grant last words.’

‘That is a bomb,’ commented Teal’c, his eyes on the device in Aziru’s hands.

Aziru looked down in mock surprise. ‘So it is.’

It occurred to Daniel that talking to him was achieving nothing, Daniel wondered whether they should retreat before Aziru’s clones arrived, they couldn’t leave him there, but neither could they get through the shield. Maybe if they met up with Sam she’d be able to figure something out.

Vala tossed her hair over her shoulder. ‘You can’t set that off, as soon as you lower the shield we’ll kill you.’

‘Actually,’ Aziru twisted something on the bomb, ‘this is a one way force-shield.’

Daniel turned to yell at Vala to run, but she was already moving and Teal’c was swinging around as well. Daniel bolted after them, but as he risked a glance over his shoulder, he saw Aziru roll the bomb straight through the force field and a bright light engulfed them.

_______________________

There was movement. Sam moved smoothly behind cover, watching as yet another version of Aziru weaved in and out of the ruined buildings, holding his zat at the ready. Sam let him go, circling around his position in a wide ark. She didn’t know how many clones Aziru had, but she doubted that one would be hunting alone.

Regardless, there would be another close enough to hear her fire on him.

Sam was grateful for the desert camo. In the long shadows of the afternoon she could blend in to the desert behind her. As long as she didn’t run, didn’t make any sudden movements, she could move unseen.

Some of the buildings were still partially intact, and she occasionally ducked into one, keeping an eye out for a viable power source. Searching every possible building just wasn’t an option. Aziru would know she was looking for a power source and she didn’t want to be searching in an obvious pattern. She didn’t want to have to search for the control crystal either; any one of the Aziru clones could have it, or it could have been hidden somewhere. A power source would be better, then she could meet up with Teal’c, Daniel and Vala and they could all escape through the gate.

Aziru could be captured later, once they had the Odyssey for back up.

Sam checked her radio, but the jamming signal was still in place.

‘Damn it,’ she breathed.

If the Aziru clones contacted each other, or he used the hologram to talk to the others, then Sam thought she could get a signal through. She hadn’t had any luck so far, but she felt she had to keep trying.

Ducking out of the latest structure in her search, Sam stopped dead.

Aziru was walking, perpendicular to her path, no more than ten feet in front of her, his staff weapon at the ready.

Sam slide silently along the crumbling wall of the building, checking the area to make sure he was the only one in the immediate area. She still couldn’t shoot him, but he was close enough that she didn’t think she would have to. Sam broke cover and approached steadily.

Aziru must have heard something, because he turned slightly, but too late. Sam grabbed a handful of his short hair, dragging his head back as she hooked her arm around and lashed out with her knife. The knife struck bone and Sam realised she’d hit his jaw instead of his throat. Aziru grunted and launched himself backwards into her, his hand fastening around her wrist as Sam drew back the knife.

Letting go of his hair, Sam slammed her hand into the side of his head. She didn’t have the momentum to knock him out, but she knew from experience that any impact on your head could make fighting difficult. Aziru cursed in Goa’uld, but his grip didn’t weaken so Sam hit him again, with as much force as she could.

His grip on her wrist slackened, not much, but enough that Sam jammed the knife back and into his neck then pulled it sideways. Blood sprayed out and Sam jerked away from him, allowing Aziru’s body to fall to the floor next to a Tok’ra.

Sam re-sheathed her knife and scooped up the staff weapon before darting away. Another one down, god only knew how many she had left.

_______________________

‘Daniel!’

Someone was patting his face, Daniel forced his eyes open and blinked into the resulting darkness.

‘Daniel?’ It was Vala, he could just make her out from the light of the broken Tok’ra tunnel.

‘Vala?’ Daniel tried to sit up and was rewarded with stabs of pain from both his right leg and arm. ‘Ow.’

‘Maybe don’t move too much,’ suggested Vala, sounding worried. ‘I think you might have been clipped by the falling rocks and, uh, crystals.’

Falling rocks…? Daniel suddenly remembered where they were. The Tok’ra. Aziru. He and Vala had been running. No. He, Vala and…

‘Teal’c?’

‘He was…’ Vala paused and Daniel saw her turn away. ‘He was in front of me.’

She didn’t need to elaborate. They were in a small pocket of the tunnel that hadn’t collapsed, if Teal’c had been in front of her. Daniel scrubbed a hand over his face, an empty feeling settling in his chest. Daniel tried to get up, but his leg protested, the pain sharper this time. He really needed to check that out, but…

‘Have you… have you tried moving the rocks?’

Vala crouched down next to him. ‘Yes, but it just… well. Let’s say I don’t think it’s too stable.’

‘Did you shout? If we’re in a pocket of air…’ Daniel struggled to get up and immediately fell back down. The chances of two air pockets occurring in the tunnel collapse exactly where they needed to be were small, to say the least. But SG-1 had beaten odds before and there was chance, there _had_ to be a chance.

‘I shouted- hey!’ Vala shuffled the few feet back over to him. ‘Don’t stand up, um, there might be some crystal in your leg.’

Shooting another brief look at the rock fall, Daniel squinted down at his leg, running his hands towards the sharp pain. ‘ _Ow_!’

‘Don’t touch it,’ advised Vala, unhelpfully as Daniel identified a large crystal chunk lodged in his upper thigh. Well that explained the pain. ‘Ooh and don’t pull it out, because that’s-‘

‘I wasn’t going to pull it out,’ Daniel ground out.

Vala was still fussing, so he let her apply the field dressing. It was somewhat worrying when he could see blood seep through almost immediately. They sat there in silence, Daniel couldn’t stop himself from straining to hear something. Maybe there was another pocket of air, maybe his friend would try and call for them…

‘I spent time with him,’ Vala said, leaning her head back against the wall. ‘He didn’t seem mad, a little odd yes, not exactly happy, but not _mad_.’

‘No, really? Because I thought you’d noticed the homicidal tendencies and just thought you’d keep it to yourself!’ Daniel caught the wounded look on her face and glanced briefly at the caved in tunnel. ‘Sorry, Vala, I just… sorry.’

There was a brief moment of silence and then Vala said; ‘I don’t understand how he set all this up. I mean, the Tok’ra would have noticed him disappearing all the time.’

Daniel sighed. ‘Yeah, I was thinking about that. He probably _didn’t_ disappear for long periods of time, at least not after the clones.’

‘Oh.’ Vala pulled a face. ‘One clone to deal with the Tok’ra, the rest working down here.’

‘Speaking of down here…’ Daniel stared around the small space. ‘You need to find a way out and go get help.’

‘Oh no.’ Vala shook her head. ‘I am _not_ leaving you here, Daniel.’

Typical. Daniel rolled his eyes.

‘Well if you _don’t_ , you’ll just have to watch me _bleed_ to _death_.’ He could feel blood running down the side of his leg.

Vala scrambled over and put pressure on it and Daniel had to bite his tongue against the pain.

‘No, because you’re not bleeding to death,’ she said stubbornly. ‘And I have to stay here, because if you hadn’t noticed, we’re _trapped_.’

‘There must be a way out,’ Daniel said through gritted teeth.

‘There isn’t, I checked, checked and checked again. So I’ll stay here, you _won’t_ bleed to death and we’ll get rescued by the Odyssey.’

Daniel stared up at what was left of the roof of the tunnel. ‘Fine.’

____________________________

The Tok’ra tunnel was obvious, and Sam stared down at in surprise. It had been cracked open from the top and Sam wondered why it had been formed so close to the surface. The Tok’ra hadn’t made it, but it wasn’t exactly rocket science to figure out who had. Sam shifted from foot to foot, trying to come to a decision. There could be a power source down there, in fact, it was probably her best shot at finding a power source. But she still hadn’t found her remaining team members.

Daniel, Teal’c and Vala weren’t near the extraction chamber, Sam had searched it and the surrounding area thoroughly. They could be holed up somewhere, hiding from Aziru. They had the whole planet, they could be _anywhere_.

Sam dropped down into the tunnel.

There were two paths ahead of her, she paused before going right.

Limping down the tunnel, Sam keyed her radio again, and nearly dropped the staff weapon in surprise when she realised it was working. ‘Daniel? Vala? Teal’c?’

Sam held her breath.

‘ _Sam!_ ’ Daniel sounded relieved and a weight that she hadn’t known was there lifted off her chest. _‘Sam, Aziru’s cloned himself, he-‘_

‘I know,’ said Sam grimly. ‘I know, Cam and I ran into him… we…’ Sam trailed off.

 _‘Sam?’_ A worried note entered Daniel’s voice.

‘Daniel…’ Sam looked down. ‘Cam didn’t make it.’

The silence was so long Sam thought they’d lost the signal again, then Daniel said quietly, ‘ _God. Um. We’ve been caught in a tunnel collapse, we… we got separated from Teal’c.’_

Separated? Sam swallowed.

 _‘Tunnels!’_ Vala exclaimed. _‘We didn’t say, he used Tok’ra tunnels to plant the explosives to take down the buildings.’_

‘Yeah and he used symbiote poison,’ said Sam, pushing everything out of her mind but Daniel, Vala and the power source. ‘I’m in a tunnel now. Are you both okay?’

 _‘Daniel’s injured,’_ said Vala immediately. _‘And we’re trapped, so the Odyssey would be really great right now.’_

 _‘Actually she’s right,’_ Daniel confirmed. _‘We need the Odyssey. If you’ve found a power source you should get back to the gate straight away, you won’t be able to dig us out.’_

‘Daniel…’ Sam bit her lip.

_‘Really, Sam. I think the air’s getting a bit thin in here already, don’t risk trying to find us and there’s at least one version of Aziru down here-‘_

_‘The shield!’_ Vala interrupted. _‘If you see it, it’s-_ ‘

The radio cut off and Sam decided that was no coincidence. Aziru had been listening in, she was sure of it. Maybe he’d even cut off the jamming signal so that he’d be able to pinpoint them.

And now he knew she was in the tunnels.

Sam looked back the way she’d come. He knew she was in the tunnels, so she should leave the tunnels. But she badly needed the power source, _Daniel and Vala_ badly needed her to find a power source.

Heading further into the tunnel, Sam heard someone mumbling to themselves. She slowed her pace further, advancing as quietly as possible until she found herself faced with a wide open room, with three control consoles organised in a triangle in the centre. Aziru stood at one and Sam lifted her staff weapon and fired.

It got nowhere near him and Sam cursed inwardly as he looked up. That would be the shield Vala had been trying to tell her about.

‘There you are Samantha.’ Aziru looked unsurprised. ‘I know you’ve just updated yourself with your teammates, I thought you might like that opportunity. What you don’t know, what _they_ don’t know, is exactly how little time they have.’

Sam glared at him. ‘I take it you’re going to tell me?’

‘Of course. There is nothing you can do about it.’ Aziru brought up a hologram of a small round device; a bomb if Sam had to guess. ‘I used this to collapse the tunnel around them, however it also contained a small amount of a colourless, odourless gas; one that is highly toxic.’

‘You know I just spoke to them, so there can’t be a gas.’ Sam sent another staff blast at the shield, trying to get an idea of how big it was.

‘Highly toxic, but it still takes a few hours to kill someone. Apparently it feels much like suffocation, and what was it Dr. Jackson said?’ Aziru pretended to think. ‘Oh yes; _the air’s getting thin already._ ’

Oh God. Fury hit her and Sam wanted nothing more to break through his shield. Her anger must have shown clearly on her face.

‘Interesting.’ Aziru tilted his head. ‘You want to kill me. Perhaps slowly. Maybe you even want the opportunity to… hunt me down.’

Sam was shaking her head in denial, trying to sort out exactly what she _was_ feeling. Daniel and Vala were still there, she could still help them.

‘Yes, Samantha, I think you do. You might justify it to yourself, pretend you are saving people, but in the end in comes down to revenge. I’m so glad you understand.’

‘Ba’al killed millions,’ Sam argued. ‘We know that he destroyed two solar systems just out of spite! 60 million people just there!’

Aziru shrugged. ‘It wasn’t like we knew any of them personally.’

Sam made a noise that was somewhere between a laugh and a sob and had to struggle to recompose herself. ‘He also tried to wipe out most the life in this galaxy! Don’t pretend we’re on the same level as you, Aziru, you can never have the moral high ground.’

‘I am not interested in the moral high ground. We never pretended to be interested in any such thing, _you_ , however… well. You would preach it to any who would listen, while you blundered through the galaxy and worked to commit genocide. I find it a fascinating contradiction, don’t you?’

‘I’m not arguing this with you.’ Sam turned sharply away from him and examined the shield. Shields were all very well and good, but they took power sources to maintain them and power sources could be depleted.

‘Very well.’ Aziru pulled something out of his pocket, and Sam looked it over, she wasn’t sure what it was, but it almost looked like… ‘It’s a lifesigns detector. Ancient technology, but I understand the Tau’ri are familiar with it.’

‘That’s not a lifesigns detector,’ Sam said, although it could be. It certainly wasn’t an original one.

‘It may not look like one, but I assure you it is. I didn’t have access to all the materials so I had to improvise, but it is affective. Here.’ Aziru wandered over towards her and showed her the screen.

Four little dots winked in and out on the screen. Four lifesigns in the immediate area. The knowledge that only this clone of Aziru wasn’t around was nowhere near enough to make up for the absence of the fifth lifesign. Aziru gave her time to take it in and then headed back over to the console.

‘It’s only a matter of time. We’re probably talking minutes, perhaps seconds, although it’s hard to be certain as it depends how much of the gas they breathed in.’

Sam ignored that and stared into the shield. No obvious power source, and she couldn’t imagine he’d managed to get hold of anything as good as a naquadah generator without the Tok’ra noticing, so she should be able to get through the shield with enough force. The staff weapon, although less accurate than her P90, would put more of a strain on the shield and take it down faster. If there was a back-up power source, Sam could get in before Aziru could rig it up and then she’d be able to power the gate and save Daniel and Vala.

There was no poison, Sam told herself, Aziru was just messing with her head.

‘Ah, there they go.’ Aziru pointed lifesigns detector towards her and a fist clenched Sam’s heart as she saw only two dots on its screen. But he was lying. Obviously, he was lying.

‘Yeah, like you didn’t rig it to do that. I know a fake lifesigns detector when I see one.’ The shield shimmered slightly at her next staff blast.

He smiled. ‘Oh, it’s real Samantha. A bit cobbled together, certainly, but real. Here, take a look.’

Sam sent him a flat glare, fully expecting the detector to bounce off the inside of the shield as he spun it across the floor in her direction. She jumped back when it instead continued through to stop at her feet. A one-way shield. She’d seen them before, but that didn’t help her situation at all; Aziru had weapons in there with him and, unlike her, he could use them. She should run for it while she still had the chance.

Sam bent down and picked up the improvised lifesigns detector.

Sending a wary look at Aziru, Sam checked it over. And double checked it, because her eyes were telling her it was a perfectly good lifesigns detector but her mind was shouting _no_ , _no it can’t be_.

‘It’s a fake,’ Sam announced, looking Aziru directly in the eye. She would stare him down until he told her the truth. ‘Pretty bad one too, honestly, I would have thought Ba’al could do better.’

Aziru’s eyes narrowed. ‘You know that it’s real. Or rather, if you truly believe otherwise, you Tau’ri are far stupider than I had anticipated.’

The world was spinning, his shield no more than an orange blur, the hatred in those dark brown eyes burning into her head. Impossible. It was a fake because he couldn’t have done it. He wouldn’t have done it. Except he would.

The evidence was there, it had disappeared in the static of a zat blast that still echoed in her mind, it had been in the defeat in Daniel’s voice when he spoke of collapsing tunnels and _everywhere_ around her. The crumbling buildings and Tok’ra bodies. Poisoned by a gas of their own making, killed using the tunnels that had defended them for thousands of years.

Sam didn’t realise that she was falling until she hit the ground.

A quiet chuckle sliced right through to her core, familiar and yet different. Somehow worse where it should have been better.

She would rip him apart.

The lifesigns detector impacted the shield in a flurry of sparks, that succeeded in making Aziru flinch back. It flickered and Sam hammered it with staff blasts. It would fail. It would fail. It would fail.

‘I. Will. Kill. You.’ Sam punctuated each word with a staff blast.

The shield was weakening, Sam could see it. She would have this victory, but not for herself.

‘Hmm.’ Aziru walked away from the console and towards…. Sam stared in horror. The markings on the floor were discrete, and she’d been distracted, but she was still furious at herself for not noticing the ring platform. She would bet anything he had a ship waiting; cloaked and in orbit.

Sam battered the shield with staff blasts, blind rage consuming her. She _would_ break it down and blast _him_ before he could go anywhere. The tunnels lit up from the constant barrage of fire and Sam heard the unmistakable sound of rings descending.

No. He would _not_ escape. No.

Her hands tightened on the staff weapon; her knuckles going white.

There was a flash of light and the shield dropped, Sam kept firing… at the empty ring platform.

‘ _No_!’ Sam screamed at Aziru’s lab. ‘ _No!_ I will _kill_ you, you bastard!’

But he was gone. Sam stumbled over to the console and in a daze found the signal that was blocking her radio. Turning it off was easy and Sam spoke urgently into her radio.

‘Daniel, come in.’ A hard knot formed in her chest. ‘Daniel, Vala, come in.’

The staff weapon dropped from her numb fingers and Sam stood there, staring blankly at the Aziru’s lab and the DHD control crystal that had been left, discarded carelessly on one of the consoles. She knew she had to go, to warn the SGC, and Sam forced herself to move, to take the crystal.

Somehow, Sam made it back up to the surface and she’d staggered halfway back to the gate before she remembered the clones. Versions of Aziru could still be around, hunting her.

‘Good,’ Sam said viciously.

Let him come after her too. To give her a chance to kill every last stinking version of him that dared to challenge her. Sam stalked towards the Stargate, out in the open, and didn’t see a single clone. Maybe he’d taken the clones with him. She shoved the crystal back into the DHD and dialled, sending her IDC and leaving the Tok’ra planet without a backwards glance.

The debrief happened in a blur, by the time she made it to the infirmary Sam couldn’t remember what she’d said and what she still needed to say. Carolyn spoke to her, a concerned look fixed on her face, but Sam couldn’t see to focus on her words.

Her anger had dissipated. She felt hollowed out, like there was nothing left inside her.

They didn’t send the Odyssey to the Tok’ra planet, someone told her, ther left it in orbit, to look out for Aziru. Sam nodded. It seemed like they expected a response.

A week passed by, during which Sam was taken off duty and sent to see the base psych. She didn’t know what to tell him, forget his questions before she could find an answer. Jack was going to arrive, Landry told her, and the lump reformed in her throat. Jack. Part of her wanted to see him, _needed_ to see him, but another part felt she’d betrayed him; he would have returned with all of SG-1, she was sure of it.

Sam didn’t have to face Jack O’Neill, because Jack never arrived at the SGC.

One week and one day after her return, Sam started getting sick. Just a virus they thought at first, just the flu.

By the time they realised it was an engineered virus, the quarantine was too little too late. Sam lay in her infirmary bed and watched the other beds slowly fill up. Since Sam was patient zero, it didn’t take them long to figure out where it had come from.

‘It must have been airborne on the planet,’ Lam told her apologetically. ‘I didn’t find it in your blood stream because there was only trace amounts of it at first and it has a very long incubation time. Unfortunately it’s contagious before the symptoms start…’

‘So it spread out of the base before we knew it was here,’ finished Sam flatly.

‘I’m afraid so.’ Lam ran a hand through her hair. ‘We’re trying to find how far its spread and enforce a quarantine zone, but it’s more a guessing game at the moment. This isn’t a virus we’ve come across before and we have no idea how bad it will get-‘

‘It’s deadly,’ Sam interrupted. Aziru had let her escape. She should have seen it straight away, he’d let her escape and infect Earth. Symbiote poison had worked on the Tok’ra and Ba’al had seen the devastation the Ori plague had wreaked on planets.

Ba’al had learned from the Ori, and Aziru had learned from Ba’al. On top of the toxic gas in the bomb… Aziru had been experimenting and she should have seen it coming.

Carolyn sighed. ‘That’s out best guess, yes. But we’ll find a cure, Sam.’

People started dying before they’d even isolated the virus. Anyone with an immune weakness, the very old, everyone who was usually first affected by a disease.

Sam was put on a ventilator.

People ran around her in a blur. She heard snatches of conversation; the virus was still spreading. The quarantine had failed; there were cases in China, in England and in Russia. _We’ll find a cure_ , Carolyn kept repeating, _we’ll find a cure_. And maybe they would, but it would be too late for too many people, Sam knew. Too late for her.

Darkness was creeping in the sides of her vision, and the infirmary ceiling was wavering in and out of focus. A machine started wildly beeping beside her, but the sound was muted, as if far away. Sam wondered where Jack was; she hoped he was okay.

Shouts accompanied the beeps, Sam couldn’t seem to understand what was being said, but she thought it was Carolyn.

As the blackness obscured the rest of her vision Sam was left with one final thought;

Her planet would be wiped out, and it was all her fault.


End file.
